Scotland’s leading clubs will hold an emergency conference call tomorrow morning to discuss the growing impact of the Coronavirus.
The scale of the problem was highlighted at tea-time tonight when Hearts announced 50% pay cuts across the club from next month.
Over the last 12 months the Edinburgh side have played in two semi-finals and one final while handing out expensive contracts to Steven Naismith and Liam Boyce.
At this moment the players have virtually no other option but since the suspension of football last Friday nothing inside the game can be ruled out.
On Wednesday UEFA expressed a wish that domestic campaigns are completed by the end of June but with death tolls from the Coronavirus rising across Europe rising sharply that timeline seems wildly optimistic.
The BBC website reports:
Scottish clubs will hold emergency conference call meetings on Thursday to discuss the issues they are facing due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
Each league will hold their own meeting, with representatives of clubs able to dial in and air their views. The first meeting is due to start mid-morning with administrative members of the SPFL in place at Hampden.
Senior figures in Scottish football will scrutinise the Coronavirus White Paper before deciding the way forward.
The finances and survival of clubs will be top of the agenda but in tandem with that how the current season is resolved will also be up for discussion.
Although Celtic have had close to £40m in the bank on their last set of accounts they also have the biggest costs in the country. Any threat to UEFA competitions or impact on the transfer market would have a serious impact on how the eight times champions operate.